Fay by Larry Brown

I did not like this book, I didn’t really like it. It’s no slight against the author, because Fay was well written and interesting. It’s just impossible to like this story.

My sister handed me this book and asked me to read it because she wanted some insights from me for a paper she needs to write about it. If it had not been for this, I never would have read this book as I tend to steer clear of dismal stories. And make no mistake, this is a dismal, gritty story. Do not look here for redemption, you will come away sorely disappointed.

This is the story of 17 year old Fay. She’s a poor country girl, “white trash” by label, but her actions are sweetly innocent and endearing, in spite of the horrifying things she does. This book puts into perspective how uneducated the poor can be and how easy it is once you get to know them to feel sympathy and the urge to help them. I do congratulate the author on successfully portraying this girl as someone I ached to just whisk away from it all. She was polite and well-mannered (as well as she could be), but also a murderer and capable of doing horrifying deeds.

If you are interested in reading about just what circumstances can cause a girl to turn to using herself as a means to earn money, then this is definitely the book for you. But please, don’t expect any sort of good and happy feelings to come out of the experience.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

I loved The Time Traveler’s Wife and when I saw Niffenegger was coming out with a new book I jumped on and immediately downloaded it to my Kindle (it was actually the first book I purchased for that). Just now I’ve gotten to the point where I can actually read it and I cannot believe I waited this long.

Like The Time Traveler’s Wife the author takes a more gentle approach to science fiction in Her Fearful Symmetry. Time travel and ghosts – normally these would be fairly cheesy but fun things to read about but with Niffenegger they become beautiful, fantastic and wistful things.

Several things about this book were fascinating to me. The mirror twins, the outcome of the original twins (which I had guessed, but only one part of), the betrayal of sorts. I cheered for Martin, felt Marijke’s pain, struggled to understand Edie’s stubbornness. I felt for Valentina’s trouble with Julia and tried desperately to understand Julia’s side (but I’m not enough like her to fully get it, I guess).

A few things about the book I struggled with. Mirror twins, but not in all ways (or if they are, things like..left and right feet being reversed were simply glossed over and not made a big deal over). The ease of the relationship between Robert and Valentina. Perhaps it was because time was really not discussed in the book that made it seem as if it progressed too fast.

But overall a peaceful, intriguing read that had me savoring every word written. I don’t do that often with authors, but Niffenegger has provided me another author to follow devotedly.

Lydia’s Process for Selecting Books, Part II

A month or so ago I began a short series on how I select books to read (and how I ended up with a huge pile of them sitting on my bookshelf!).  I’ve had questions from people asking me how in the world I manage to come up with so much variety and it prompted me to just write these few posts detailing a few ways I pick out my books.

This post is going to cover the last three items on the list, namely: The Recommendations and The Advertisements and The Author. All three fairly simple, but oh so important.

3. The Recommendations.  First of all, I highly recommend you go to a site like GoodReads.com or Shelfari.com and sign up there.  It’s a valuable resource and a great way to explore authors and genres you’ve never heard of before (Steampunk novels anyone?).  You can find me as a friend there as well, and add me! I always love to see what people are reading.  Just search for my email Benz1966 at Gmail dot com.  Both of these sites have a great recommend column, not to mention the fact that your friends can also recommend books they’ve read that they think you might like.. and you don’t have to worry about remembering the title or finding that slip of paper!

Another great resource for recommendations is Amazon.com.  When you look at the title of a book you are interested in, there is that lovely “what other people bought” slider a bit further down the page.  When I first started seriously reading (I don’t know how else to phrase that – my reading was serious before but never to this extent!) Amazon proved to be a valuable resource to me.

4. The Advertisements.  Here is another place where GoodReads comes in handy.  There are book giveaways, there are mini-ads (like you see on Facebook – but about books!).  They come with great little teasers so you can tell at a glance if it might be something you are interested in.  Books simply don’t get TV time, so in order to find ads for books, you must go to a place where books are central, of course.  It seems so simple, but it really does play a big part.  I think about 15% of the books I end up putting on my to-read list come from GoodReads advertisements alone.

5. The Author.  Everyone does this.  You find an author you like and next thing you know.. you’re grabbing up everything in sight.  But I have a tip for you on this too.  You see, there’s this nifty site called fantasticfiction.co.uk.  Go there. Bookmark it. It’s my precious.  If you are like me and love to read books in order and find out at a glance (and without having to look through some of those authors dopey websites) then you will be visiting this site several times a week to study what it has to offer.  It also lists new books! Upcoming books! And author recommendations! Like Steven King? You can see what authors he recommends!  So very pretty. I love this site and you will to.

Thanks for reading my ramblings and I hope you picked up a few tips that’ll help you out.  I love to read and I love talking with others who love to read so drop me a note anytime you want to chat about that great book you read, or want a recommendation from me.